The book club discussion emphasized how much freedom the three pre-adolescent boys -- main characters in the story -- enjoyed on board the Oransay. They were unsupervised, for the most part; took advantage of the run of a cruise ship; and suffered little consequences of their actions.
Book club members contrasted the boys’ coming of age stories with the likelihood of such activities today.
Now children are closely regulated and supervised. Young children would never be dropped off to travel alone on a long ocean voyage without a strict schedule and accountability. People spoke fondly about their own lives growing up and how they were able to freely roam for extended periods of time. As long as they were home in time for dinner and not caught doing anything forbidden, everyone was satisfied.
There was also talk about the secret lives of children.
Although the book is fictional, the author actually did travel as a young boy on the real-life Oronsay from Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) to London. Ondaatje says that the characters and events in the book are not real, but one could wonder how much in life is remembered and how much is imagined? It might be that people can’t or don’t wish to be certain of their own life story.
This is a great story for reflection about childhood behavior and the effect it has on adult life.
A quote from The Cat's Table:
Have you read The Cat's Table? Please tell us your thoughts. You do not have to be a member of the group to comment on the blog!"Over the years, confusing fragments, lost corners of stories, have a clearer meaning when seen in new light, a different place."
I have come across this title many times while reading book reviews,researching book club suggestions or scouring catalogs and website for collection development purposes. All these comments were positive and I was excited to have the chance to read such a popular title for book club. My excitement didn't last long as I read the first few pages and thought "this is a little slow" not deterred I read a few more next night and thought "wow, this is a little boring" To make a long story short while I gave it the old college try I couldn't get past the first fifty pages. Funny how a book so loved by so many people and I just could't read it. It is not easy being green!!
ReplyDeleteI listened to the audio edition of The Cat's Table, read by the author, and at first I thought I would have preferred a professional narrator. But as the story went on, the author's tone of dreamy recollection seemed perfectly suited to this pseudo-memoir.
ReplyDeleteI recommend this audiobook if you are in the mood for a story of an older person remembering an eventful period of his life -- the time when he passed from childhood into adulthood in the course of a three-week ship journey.
Though I am anonymous, you may think of me as RoseK...Remember childhood? Remember the joy of play and mischief-making? As a young adult, you may lace said memories with your reality. That reality mix has the power to shape you. Do you morph , become a whole self, perhaps meet truth head-on, live free? That is the author's proposal to the book's young narrator, Michael. He accepts Ondaatje's invitation and thus, uncovers his distant cousin Emily's protracted anxiety with her past. The two, indeed, meet truth and live free. A perfect story, end to end!
ReplyDeleteThere definitely was a lot of interesting mixing of memories and reality! I liked how the author used his own name for the main character and made the book seem like an actual personal history.
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